You may know that they were named in honor of the German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn. I wonder how he pronounced his name. I have imagined that it was probably zin, not zeen, which has led me to the zin pronunciation. Any German speakers out there? More "Zin" than "Zeen," in German. But what about Diervilla? To the extent that people ever speak about it at all, it seems that most people say Dye-er-VIL-a, but Merriam-Webster gives Deer-VIL-a and I have one British example of DEER-vil-a. However, it's named for a French botanist with the surname Diereville, which I would pronounce as Dee-AIR-a-vee, so maybe the pronunciation should be Dee-air-VEE-ya. BTW, the real Albany is in New York.

As SQH1 is alluding, the way you manage your bin will determine how you approach harvesting the castings. Systems that are top-fed, meaning feedstock is added to the system in thin layers spread over the bedding surface that are then covered with an equally thin layer of bedding material, are harvested when the bin is filled. The top few inches of material, which typically contains most but by no means all of the worms, is scooped out and set to one side, and the finished/mostly finished material beneath, which will contain some worms, is scooped out for use in the garden and on houseplants. In pocket fed systems, which are bins that are filled to the top with dampened bedding and fed by dumping feedstock into pockets dug in the bedding, harvesting is accomplished using a variety of methods: Dump and sort This method involves dumping the whole of the bin contents onto a tarp beneath a bright light or, best, in the bright sun, and fomring the material into several cone-shaped mounds. Worms, being photophobic, will dive to the center of these mounds to avoid the light, allowing you to scrape off the vermicompost on the outside of each mound until the worms are again exposed. Continue scraping away the vermicompost from each mound until all that remains is a pile of worms. The worms can then be placed back in the freshly bedded bin and the vermicompost applied to garden and houseplants. Forced screening (my personal favorite) Usually used in pocket fed systems, forced screening ivolves operating the bin as normal until the original bedding is no longer recognizable and the total bin volume has decreased by at least half. At this point a piece of fiberglass window screan cut several inches larger than the surface area of the bin is laid on top of the bin contents. Lay the excess screen length flat against the inner bin walls, and fill the bin the rest of the way to the top with new, dampened bedding. Feed into the new bedding on top of the screen as you normally do. Younger worms will squeeze through the window screen to the new food source above once that feedstock becomes biologically active, while older, larger worms will remain beneath the screen to finish off all remaining feedstock. Once the food sources beneath the screen are exhausted or become less attractive than the nice-smelling feedstock above, the larger worms, too, will squeeze their way through to the top. In the mean time, of course, you will have been simply feeding into the material on top of the screen. Once the material on top of the screen is ready for harvest, signified by the bedding being no longer recognizable and the volume of material on top of the screen decreasing by roughly half, grab the excess screen length along the inner walls of the bin and lift it and the material on top of it (which will contain the vast majority of the worms) out of the bin. Dump the finished material from the bottom of the bin, which will contain a few worms, for use in the garden and on houseplants, and dump the material from on top of the screen into the bottom of the now empty bin. Lay the same piece of screen on top of the material with the excess length pressed flat agains the inner walls, rebed with new, dampened bedding, and feed into the bedding on top of the screen as you did before. The process now begins again. The bright folks who participate here have developed fascinating and effective variations to each of these harvesting methods as well as some unique methods I've not mentioned here, and hopefully they will share their ideas with you, but this is a beginning on bin harvesting options. Some important thing to keep in mind: 1) When you harvest you are highly unlikely to remove all of the worms from the finished material. There is no problem with this! The number of worms lost will have no measurable impact on the processing rate of the newly set up bin, and the worms remaining in the finished material will have no negative impact on your garden. Neither will the worms remaining in the finished material when it is applied to the garden be sentenced to death, as so many other internet fora erroneously claim. The types of worms used in worm bins are found naturally in soils throughout nature. They did not evolve in the bins of neanderthal man, but in the soil, millions of years before man appeared on this little planet to build them bins, and they will continue to live there as nature intended should they be introduced to your garden in your finished vermicompost. 2) The finished material from your bin is not pure worm castings, and neither is it necessary or even advantageous that it is. The finished product from a worm bin is vermicompost, defined as a mixture of worm castings (typically about 80% or so), decomposed OM that did not pass through the gut of the worm, and small bits of undecomposed material. Research shows that vermicompost produces excellent plant growth response, and, in many/most cases, better response than does pure castings (achieved by screening the material). Ok, this is rather long-winded, so I'll close here, hoping that you will continue to ask questions should you still have them, and looking forward to the responses of the other wise and creative forum participants, though you should watch out for posts by Chuckie. He sometimes sees aliens in his worm bins..... KellyS

The OP's house has some small traditional features and it has a gable roof but its definitely not a Cape. A Cape always has a roof steep enough for a second story under the rafters with windows only in the gable ends. The entrance is always under the roof eave; a full cape has 2 windows each side of the door, a 3/4 cape has one on one side and two on the other, a half cape has a window each side of the door. You can drive for a mile through E. Oleans, MA and see very few houses that are not true capes. One story elements are sometimes added to the sides but rarely porches or dormers. Only a realtor would call the OP's house a cape. A Field Guide to American Houses classifies the OP's house as "Minimal Traditional" which is part of a larger category: "Modern" houses.

Some stone should be soaked, others can be installed without soaking, but soaking does no harm even it it is not strictly needed, and is good insurance. Here's how to tell if stone needs to be soaked. Draw a quarter-size circle on the back of a stone with a pencil. Set the stone on a level surface, circle up. Fill the circle with water. If the water gets soaked up in less than three minutes, soak the stone before installing with a thinset mortar. If stone does not need to be soaked, but you soak it anyway, it does no harm and generally results is a slightly improved bond. If you are using an adhesive rather than a water-based thinset, then soaking is not required. This test also works for brick and ceramic/porcelain tile.